Appreciation of English Literary Texts

G.C.E. O/L 2016SUPPORT SEMINAR

4TH NOVEMBER 2016

POETRY

NATURE To the Nile by John Keats

The life-giving power of nature.Nature is revered and respected.Mythical and the realistic outlook towards

nature.Nature as the creator of human civilization.

A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dickinson

The self sufficiency of nature. Nature does not need human intervention. Nature benefits man. Nature has its own dignity and pride. Nature has its own harmonious lifestyle. Independence of nature. Man’s pettiness. Man’s inability to achieve the pride and the grace of nature although he

calls himself “civilized”

The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Nature as power.Eagle as a symbol of power.A parallelism between authoritative men and the

eagle.The destructive nature of power.Power, supremacy and isolation.“like a thunderbolt he falls”

To the Evening Star by William Blake

Nature as a symbol of love, beauty and fertility. Nature as life giver and protector. The presence of God is felt in nature. Nature has its associations with heaven. Nature consists of both good and evil. Only nature can protect the innocents from evil.

CONFLICT

War is Kind by Stephen Crane The futility and the destructive nature of war. The poet has been sarcastic towards the celebration of war by the selfish politicians and the

power hungry rulers. The innocents are the victims of war. A very good example of verbal irony. The grandeur of war vs the horror of war. The poet negates the glory of war. The grim realities of war. The horror and pity of war.

The Terrorist , He’s Watching by Wislawa Szymborska

Planned violence and assassination during violence. The terrorist as a human being. The effect of time during violence and conflict. The explosion of a bomb from the point of view of a terrorist and

the narrator. The victims of violence is ordinary innocent people. Terrorism and violence have become so common in the modern

society that people have become so insensitive to them.

Farewell to Barn and Stack and Tree by A. E. Housman

A domestic conflict.The consequences of impulsive violence.The physical death and the psychological death.The effects of a conflict between two persons upon a

whole lifestyle, for example, the farm and the agriculture, family relationships, family economy, family honour and dignity, shame etc.

The feeling of guilt at a conflict.

Breakfast by Jacques Prevert

Domestic conflict, between husband and wife. The importance of verbal communication. The expression of tension at a conflict. The distancing between two individuals due to

conflict or misunderstanding. The title is ironical since no breakfast has been taken. The seriousness of a simple incident at a conflict. Less action but much meaning.

Prescribed short stories/prose

The Nightingale and the Rose - Oscar Wilde

An extract from ‘Colin Cowdrey Lecture’- The Lahore Attack

Kumar Sangakkara

The Lumber Room - Saki

An extract from ‘Wave’- A Memoir of Life after the Tsunami

Sonali Deraniyagala

Author

Oscar Fingall O’ Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16th October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland.

Known as a writer, a poet and a playwright.

Wilde published “The Happy prince” and other tales in 1888.

His novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and the social comedies, “Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), “A Woman of No Importance” (1891), “An Ideal Husband” (1895), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895) established his reputation.

Wilde died in Paris, France on 30th November 1900 at the age of 46.

The Nightingale and the Roseby Oscar WildeNote on the short story The main theme of Oscar Wilde's short story "The Nightingale and the

Rose" explores the effects of self-sacrifice in the name of what one truly believes in.

In this story, the nightingale is a bird who hears an Oxford student cry for the want of a lady, who is apparently his "true love". The woman in question had requested specifically a red rose from the love-stricken man as a token of true devotion. Only with the flower will the lady respond to the man's request for love.

The nightingale, who is a believer in true and eternal love finds that there are no red roses in the garden. However, a true believer at last, he pinches his own heart against the thorn of a white rose and turns it red with its own blood.

This, the nightingale does to reinstate his faith in love and his true believe that love shall always prevail.

We find out in the end that all is worthless. The lady rejects the rose and the Oxford lad realizes that it was all caprice on his part. The bird, however, is still dead. However, the story shows us that no sacrifice is too small when one does it with a true mission in mind.

However, the story is (as many works in Wilde's tradition) open-ended: Was it worth it, after all? Who actually wins in an ultimate demonstration of true faith? Does the nightingale die in vain? These are the ultimate questions that are subtlety laid to the reader, and it is the reader who will have the final say after all.

Reading the text

i. Initial conflict The girl friend demanding a red rose as a token of love from the young

student. Looking for a red rose to please her. An immature and impractical demand and therefore the young man

feels desperate.ii. Development of the action The nightingale hears the appeal and visits three rose trees. The nightingale sacrifices her life for a red rose.iii. Climax The student finding the red rose and presenting it to the girl.

iv. Falling action/conclusion

Refusal by the girl.

Announcement of the newfound love and its advantage over the other.

Withdrawal of the student and returning to the study of metaphysics.

The social comment that is made in the story.

Thematic Concerns

(a) Theme of Love True love needs sacrifice The nightingale sacrifices her life to make the other happy The nightingale sacrifices her life to make the young student happy Conditional love is seldom genuine(b) Reason vs. passion Passion is a destructive element that brings waste reign over passion(c) Education Theoretical education creates an unbalanced individual(d) Human hypocrisy and deceit(e) Materialism versus romanticism

Literary Techniques

Wilde uses many figures of speech to enrich the semantic expressions Personification is a typical rhetorical device in fairy tales Apart from the student, the other characters are animals or elements

from nature The nightingale symbolizes goodness, virtue and sacrifice Rose stands for true love and true art The oak tree stands for wisdom The girl symbolizes materialism and hypocrisy The student symbolizes cynicism as he can’t appreciate beauty Comparison is used more frequently

Questions

What prevailing attitudes/values does this story criticize?

What do you think of the student’s way of responding to the problem? How successful is he? Give your opinion.

Do you approve of the conduct of the girl? Discuss.

What role does the nightingale play in this story?

Which character do you like the most in “The Nightingale and the Rose”? Discuss with reference to the text.

What is the turning point of the story, “The Nightingale and the Rose”? Why do you consider it to be the turning point? Discuss with reference to the text.

What truth about true love is presented in “The Nightingale and the Rose”? Analyse.

An extract from ‘Colin Cowdrey Lecture’- ‘The

Lahore Attack’Kumar Sangakkara

Background

This is an extract from Kumar Sangakara’s Colin Cowdrey Lecture delivered on 5th of July 2011 at Lord’s which mesmerized the whole world, by its sincerity, dignity and patriotism.

The elocutionary force of the speech comes from his sheer love and regard for his country and countrymen.

It is a unique expression of responsibility as a leader, for Kumar it as leader in cricket.

He thinks that the love and regard the people of Sri Lanka have for the game of cricket and cricketers should be reciprocated by the cricketers themselves.

The Author

Kumar Sangakkara is one of Sri Lanka’s foremost cricketers who has received international acclaim.

He was born on 27th October 1977.

Sangakkara was one of the most important members of the team that won the 2014 World T20 as well as the team that made the finals to the 2007 World Cup and the 2012 World T20.

He captained the national team from 2008 to 2011.

In 2011 he was named the ODI cricketer of the year at the ICC Cricket Awards Ceremony.

Reading the extract

This extract is part of an oral delivery and has features of oracy, like elocutionary force and emotionally charged expressions.

It deals with an awesome experience faced by the cricketers and their narrow escape.

It was a speech that radiated passion, emotion and true spirit of the game.

One does not have to be Sri Lankan to connect with Sangakkara’s speech. When the words “Spirit of the Game’ are used one often thinks of

sportsmanship on the field, absence of sledging, a batsman ‘walking’ when he knows he is out…But the true spirit of cricket lies outside the paying field. It’s in the hearts of the fans and the players.

He describes how the game brought happiness to the people of his country in times of war and suffering.

His speech echoed what cricketers stand for in modern society as their role transcends the field into the lives of normal people.

He narrates an incident which took place after the Sri Lankan team returned home after the Lahore attack. He met a soldier who enquired about his health to which Sangakkara replied that ‘what they as soldiers experience everyday, we only experienced for a few minutes, but managed to grab all the news headlines.”

The soldier replied that had he died it would have been during his job and he was ready for such an eventuality. The soldier then said, “But you are a hero and if you were to die it would be a great loss for our country.”

What Sangakkara said after narrating this incident gets you really thinking: “How can this man value his life less than mine?”

The Lumber Room by Saki

The Author

Hector Hugh Munro was born on 18th December 1870 and died on 13th November 1916.

Saki is his pen name.

Was a British writer whose witty and mischievous stories satirized the society and culture.

Father was an officer in the Burma police.

After his mother’s death he was raised by his aunts wo frequently resorted to corporal punishment.

He was brought up in a regime of strictness and severity.

This left an indelible mark on his character and is immortalized in a number of short stories, especially “The lumber Room”

The Plot

The Exposition Nicholas gets into disgrace with his aunt. So his cousins are to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and

he has to stay at home. The aunt was absolutely sure that the boy will get into the gooseberry

garden and orders him not to enter it.The Complication Nicholas gets into the lumber room, a storehouse of unimagined

treasure. Every item brings life and imagination and is symbolic of what the

adults of the real world lack. The tapestry awakens his imagination to a great extent.

The Climax While Nicholas is admiring the colouring of a mandarin duck, the voice of

his aunt comes from the gooseberry garden. She has slipped into the rainwater tank and cannot get out. She commands the boy to bring her a ladder and he ignores it saying

that it may be the evil one. The aunt realizes that her punishment has boomeranged on her.The Resolution The furious aunt maintains the frozen silence of one who has suffered

undignified detention in a rainwater tank for thirty five minutes. Nicholas is also silent in the absorption of an enchanting picture of a

hunter and a stag.(symbolic)

Appreciation and Enjoyment

The child’s world/the adult’s world- adulthood causes one to lose all sense of fun and imagination.

The aunt is obsessed with punishing and nit-picking the children. Nicholas’s imagination behind the tapestry/aunt’s boring stories and ideas. She tries to convince Nicholas about the fun of going to the beach but lacks

the imagination to sound convincing. The frustration and pain that adulthood and pride can bring. She puts punishment and withholding of enjoyment as more important than

getting to know the children and moulding their lives. Beautiful and creative things are locked up in the lumber room seemingly not

to spoil them. The house is dull and colourless. The children are deprived of beauty and imagination.

Thematic Concerns

Stupidity, moral degradation, hypocrisy and ambition boomerang on

the person who emits them in a hostile manner.

Children may be more innovative than the adults.

The adults must be very careful in punishing children.

Generation gap.

Using religion to instil fear.

Thank You

All The Very Best With Your Exam!